


Teach me how to be happy again

by kill_j0y



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Character's Name Spelled as Hanji, Character's Name Spelled as Jaeger, Domestic Violence, Junior Eren Yeager, Just a warning: it will get dark, M/M, Mikasa Ackerman & Levi Are Related, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Senior Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Slow Build, Tutoring
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:34:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23143996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kill_j0y/pseuds/kill_j0y
Summary: Eren is a junior who has a seemingly perfect life in school, but no one knows that at home he has to endure living with abusive and absent parents.Levi was assigned as his tutor to help with Eren’s grades. The more time the boys spent together, the closer they become and Levi starts to see through the cracks of Eren’s life.
Relationships: Levi & Eren Yeager, Levi/Eren Yeager
Comments: 43
Kudos: 85





	1. A view into Eren's life

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! This is the first work I’m posting on ao3. I hope everyone can appreciate this story as it unfolds, this is an outlet for me to talk about some issues. So please, be mindful of the tags. I’ll make sure to update them when needed, I’ll also let everyone know that they’ve been updated on the initial notes each the chapter!  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! This is the first work I’m posting on ao3. I hope everyone can appreciate this story as it unfolds, this is an outlet for me to talk about some issues. So please, be mindful of the tags. I’ll make sure to update them when needed, I’ll also let everyone know that they’ve been updated on the initial notes of the chapter!  
> I hope you enjoy this first chapter, and maybe leave me a comment about your thoughts!

\-------Eren’s Pov------- 

Eren Jeager was the perfect stereotype of a soccer captain, beautiful, popular and strong. The boy had the perfect shade of sun-kissed skin and green eyes that resembled the color of the forest's leaves with speckles of sunlight glowing through them. Being a junior in high school usually meant a lot of pressure from trying to figure out what you wanted to do with your life, but the boy wasn’t worried about his grades since he would just end up getting a scholarship for sports. He didn’t dislike school or studying, it just didn’t make sense as to why someone as good in soccer as he would worry about something as trivial as grades.

As much as his life seemed great in school, it wasn’t so great at home. His father was never around, and when he was, he just knew how to drink and beat Eren up. Thankfully that wasn’t the case very often, most of the time it was just him alone. His mom worked as a nurse, he never knew if she knew about abuse he suffered or if she never cared. Carla usually took the night shift so Eren almost never saw her.

His father usually sent him and his mom some money every month, and that with Carla’s salary was enough for Eren to live comfortably. No one knew the whole truth about his home life, both his childhood friends knew that neither of his parents were very present. The thing with Eren being abused by his father was that it was always so sporadic that he never felt like it was that big of a problem to report it to anyone, also he was financially dependent on Grisha so he couldn’t just go to the police like that. He just had to endure it until he went to college.

X

Waking up Monday morning, Eren felt great. He could conquer the world if he wanted, waking up before his alarm rang only helped in making him feel better. So he decided to go down the stairs and work on breakfast, sending a message to Armin and Mikasa inviting them over.

The trio had been friends since they were in the womb, Mikasa lived right next to his house and Armin lived across the street. They often had a habit of eating breakfast in each other houses so it was no surprise to wake up to messages like these. Mikasa lived with her cousin and uncle, both their parents were either absent or dead and Kenny ended up being the guardian for both kids. As for Armin, he just lived with his grandfather, both of his parents died in a car accident when he was really young and his grandpa was the closest relative to take care of him.

The green eyed boy started working on some pancakes as he heard the front door opening and closing, revealing his two best friends already ready for school since they would probably just ride together anyway.

“Anyone want some pancakes? It’s the only thing I know how to make.” Eren said as a greeting to his friends, not bothering to look up from the stove.

“Good morning to you too, Eren.” Armin replied sitting in the kitchen table next to Mikasa “pancakes sounds nice.”

So they sat together and ate while talking about what they had to do in school today, all three of them were 16 years old so they had most classes together. Armin was the smartest of them so he usually helped Eren with his homework and Mikasa, occasionally, since she was pretty smart herself.

A quarter till 7 the raven haired girl received a text from her cousin, Levi. He usually drove them to school since none of the three had their driver’s license yet. Levi was a Senior and only a year older then Eren but they never talked much, only engaging in a conversation with Mikasa in the middle of them. The older boy was very good looking but Eren never did more than steal a few glances. No one knew that he was bi, he was too scared to tell anyone because he knew his father would never take it well.

“Good morning.” Eren and Armin said in unison to Levi as they got on his car.

“Morning.” Was the only response they managed to get out from the older male.

Mikasa just made an agreement noise and they went on their way. Eren loved to sit by the window and watch the houses pass by, always imagining what was going on inside. He loved to see people with their dogs on a morning walk, they always seemed so peaceful like they had the whole time in the world. The boy always wondered when he would always feel like this, not only these sparse days where he would feel good about himself.

He was awaken from his daydream when he heard someone snapping their fingers in front of his face.

“Oi, brat. Get out, I’m going to go park.” It was Levi calling out. Eren looked outside and saw that they were already in front of the school and that his friends were waiting for him outside. Muttering an apology, he quickly got out of the car.

The three teen then went on their way inside the school. In there Eren felt at peace, he could enjoy the company of his friends and classmates. Walking up to his locker he was greeted by Connie and Jean, both were in his soccer team.

“Heya, cap. Is practice still up today?” 

“Yes, horseface. You ask me that every day, why wouldn’t it be up.” Answered Eren. The brown haired boy always suspected that this daily conversation was only an excuse for Jean to get close to Mikasa.

“Yeah, whatever. So Mikasa, how you doing?” The other replied while winking in the girl’s direction.

Mikasa answered with a puking noise. “Ew, not even in your dreams Jean.” That rejection always made Eren smile, he couldn’t stand the idea of horseface dating his friend. 

“Dude, just give up she’ll never like you back. Let’s just go to class.” said Connie while dragging Jean away. “See you later, Eren!”

“See ya!” Answered Eren.

“We should get going too, guys” Armin turned to his friends and looked in a patronizing way at Eren “Mr. Pixis won’t be very happy if Eren gets late again.” 

The boy only replied with an eye roll and they all started walking towards math class.

Needless to say math wasn’t his strongest subject so he just kinda sat there either doodling in his notebook or looking at his phone. Armin and Mikasa would occasionally try and get him to focus, but they all knew he was a lost cause at this point when it came to studying.

X  
Classes seemed to drag on forever, Eren was praying that the day would end faster so that he could go to his soccer practice.

After what seemed like an eternity, the bell rang for his final class of the day. He hurriedly packed his belongings and exited the class shouting a ‘see you later’ to his friends. Armin and Mikasa usually stayed in the library waiting for Eren to finish his practice, unless they had something to do at home.

Eren was usually the first to get on the field. He quickly changed his clothing to the team uniform and went out on the field. Hannes, their coach, was already there reading something on his clipboard. He was there mostly to supervise the team and help them if needed, it was usually Eren and Reiner, the co-captain, who directed the whole practice.

Since the boy was already there he started to stretch so he could focus on his team mates later. Not after he began the stretching routine Reiner arrived in the field.

“Hi, pretty boy.” Eren could not remember when Reiner started calling him that, it was just an affectionate nickname but hey, Eren wasn’t complaining about being called pretty boy by a hot blond.

“Hey, Reiner.” he replied rolling his eyes “sometimes I think you like me too much.” Eren added with a smile.

“How could I not like our dear captain?” He shot back with a wink and they both went on with their stretches in a light and comfortable mood.

After a couple of minutes in silence, noise started to fill the field as the rest of the team joined the two. Not wanting to waste time, Eren was quick to jump on his feet and start with the stretches for the team ignoring their noises of disapprovement.

X

Practice went smoothly and soon he was reunited with his friends walking home from school.

“Eren, why do you never shower after practice? You smell like shit.” complained Mikasa while holding a hand to her nose.

“Awnn, Mika thank you!” replied the boy while going in for a hug and laughing as she tried to get away.

Whenever people asked him about this he would always change the subject. Eren had a pretty bad scar near his right hip bone from when his father came home a little bit too drunk one night and hit him with a glass bottle. Sure, it would be easy to pass the scar off as something trivial but he was way too scared that someone might doubt him. He knew that if Mikasa found out she would try and convince him to go to the police, but there was always that part of him that felt guilty about reporting Grisha. He was still his father after all.

Eren managed to get them to change the subject and they walked the rest of their way home laughing and chatting.

The trio said their goodbyes in front of Eren’s house, but as soon as they left Eren felt like something was wrong and suddenly he didn’t want to go home anymore.

Opening the door he was hit by a very strong smell of alcohol, meaning Grisha was home. Whenever this happened he always tried to go to his room as fast as possible, not even thinking about eating dinner.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, Grisha was sitting right there waiting for him to get home.

“Hello, father.” He greeted Grisha in an attempt to try and subdued the anger he knew was just waiting to be deposited at the boy. Eren quickly went to go up the stairs to lock himself in his bedroom, but his father had other plans in mind.

“Hello? Where the hell have you been?! I’ve been waiting for you to get home, you ungrateful child.” He spat at Eren while getting up.

Every step Grisha went in his son’s direction, the boy took a step back trying to keep a safe distance.

That was until he hit the wall and had nowhere left to go.

“Huh? Aren’t you going to answer me?!” The smell of beer coming from his father’s breath was almost unbearable.

“I was at the soccer practice, dad.” Eren always chose his words carefully trying not to give his father an even bigger reason to get angry.

“Soccer my ass.” His father words were punctuated by a strong punch on the side of his face, making him fall to the ground. “Maybe if you weren’t such a failure I wouldn’t hit you like this.” and the brown haired boy received a kick on his ribs. 

While he tried to gain his breath back he heard the door opening and closing, and with that the man who was supposed to care and love for him left. His vision was already blurry from the tears pooling on his eyes, hearing the door close was the sign that he needed to just cry in peace.

Honestly he couldn’t tell how much time he spent laying in the ground after his father left, but sooner or later he would have to get up. Getting up was fairly easy, which meant his ribs weren’t broken, thank god.

The boy first went to his room to grab a change of clothes and to leave his backpack by the bed.

Going to the bathroom to take a shower, he turned on the yellow lights and looked at himself in the mirror. His reflection looked back at him with some swelling around his eyes and an already purple bruise starting to show on his cheekbone. That was definitely going to need an explanation, but he decided to just think about this later. Striping off his sweaty soccer clothes he noticed the forming bruise on his ribs as well, but no one was going to see that anyway, he just needed to endure the pain for a couple of days without making people question him.

The shower was steaming hot, it helped Eren feel a little better. The boy scrubbed his skin raw and once he was satisfied he got out of the shower. He took extra care when drying the droplets of water from his ribs, in order to not cause him more unnecessary pain.

Once he was fully dried and clothed Eren went straight to his bed, not being hungry anymore. The minute he laid down he started crying, the boy didn’t even know why but he just felt so alone and helpless. The boy who apparently had a perfect life outside of his home, cried himself to sleep that night.

X

Waking up the next day wasn’t as fun as yesterday, he felt sore and his ribs were making it awful for him to move around. There was a message on the group chat for them to go eat breakfast at Armin’s, but the boy wasn’t feeling up for it. He replied that he already had breakfast and was going to go take a shower now, they made Eren promise that he would still ride with them to school.

The green eyed boy made his way to the bathroom near his bedroom, turning on the lights and looking at the mirror he was once again stared back at by his reflection with a very noticeable bruise on his cheekbone. He took a deep breath and started thinking what he was going to say to everyone who would surely ask him about this. Maybe he could say that he hit the door? He got up to pee in the middle of the night and forgot his door was closed, that would make a somewhat acceptable excuse right?

He took a shower enclosed in thoughts about what his day would be like, Eren hoped that no one would think too much of his bruise. He could try to put on some makeup from his mom, but it would; one look too dark; and two look like shit because he didn’t know how to apply makeup.

After showering and eating a peanut butter and jam sandwich, Eren was waiting for Mikasa to text him and say that they were ready to go to school. He went to try and tame his mess of a brown hair, it usually was up in all directions no matter what he did to it. Today was no exception, he hoped that a neat hairstyle would help direct the attention from his bruised face but it wasn’t going to happen.

Having given up on his hair he got a message from his friends saying that they were going to Levi’s car, so he went to grab his things to go outside. Before opening the door he took a moment to collect himself and take a deep breath, repeating his excuse on his head.

Going outside he saw Mikasa and Armin crossing the street to get to the car that was parked in front of Mikasa’s house. He could feel the exact moment they saw him and his very visible purple bruise on his face.  
“Eren! Oh my god.” He heard the girl gasping and coming straight in his direction, instead of the car.

“What happened?? You didn’t have this bruise yesterday.” Armin inquired, sounding very worried

“Heh, I’m so dumb guys.” Eren replied with a sigh “I got up to pee in the middle of the night and hit, face first, a fucking closed door.” He punctuated his sentence with a dry laugh, try to sound as convincing as possible.

Both of his friend looked at him inquisitively and he could practically see them thinking about what he just said.

“Did you sprint at the door or something, you idiot?” Mikasa replied with a laugh and friendly shove on his shoulder.

“I really needed to pee.” Eren replied while looking at the floor, glad that his friends seemed to take his excuse very easily. It helped that the boy was known for being naturally clumsy, getting injured very often in his soccer practices and games.

“What the hell, get in the car already.” Shouted Levi from the car window.

The group then made his way to the car, not wanting to experience an even more pissed off Levi.

“Whoa, that’s a nasty bruise you got there.” Was the first thing he heard when he entered the vehicle. “Did you get beat up or something?”

With a nervous laugh Eren replied “I ran into a door last night actually” fingers crossed that it was a good enough response.

“Ran into a door, huh.” Levi replied with the lift of an eyebrow. Eren didn’t know what he meant by that, but hopefully the older male bought into his excuse.

The rest of the ride he couldn’t shake off the feeling that Levi was looking at him occasionally through the rear mirror, not wanting to look back he kept his eyes focused on the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this chapter, please leave my your opnions here or message me on tumblr!  
> There's more info on me in my profile, if you're interested!
> 
> Find me in my tumblr [here](https://levi-sbooty.tumblr.com)!  
> Here's the [reference](https://qr.ae/pNn4R4) on Eren's eyes


	2. Where everything started

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back early! These first few chapters will be a lil bit small, i apologize for that. The future chapters are longer, i promise!  
> Hope you enjoy this!

\------Levi’s Pov------

It’s been a couple of days since that Eren kid showed up with a bruise on his face. Levi wasn’t very convinced with that poor excuse, the boy most probably got in a fight with someone and didn’t want his friends knowing about it.

Levi has been in his fair share of fights when he was younger, so he knew what a bruise from a punch looked like. He had a troubled childhood, it was very hard for a six year old kid to lose his mother like Levi did. The boy didn’t even know his father, so he was left in the hands of a foster care home. It took a couple of months for them to find out that he had an uncle and get a hold of Kenny, who hasn’t been in contact with his sister for years.

The boy used to live with his mother in Paris, the process of moving a six year old to a different country took a tool on Levi. He grew up getting in a lot of fights and causing Kenny to apologize for a lot of bruises and broken noses on other kids. It took a lot of time and potential time in juvie for Levi to agree on getting help from psychologists and psychiatrists on dealing with his bottled up grief and depression.

The raven haired boy could see that Eren wasn’t a trouble kid like he was. Hopefully the bruise meant nothing, just some kids fighting for whatever reason. Although Eren was only a year younger then Levi, he and all the kids in his grade just seemed very immature looking but nothing that Levi could say for sure since he wasn’t very close with any juniors.

Not that the boy was a loner, he just didn’t trust people that easily. Levi had two friends that were very close, and that’s it. He never felt the need to befriend anyone else, and being honest, Hanji was loud enough for at least five people.

Hanji was a science freak whom Levi was friends since second grade. Their friendship started in the first day of school when Hanji threw herself at Levi and claimed that they would be best friends for life. After some time of trying to get away from the crazy brunet, and it not working at all, he just decided to be friends with her. She was loud and obnoxious, but Levi knew that she had a kind heart and cared deeply about her friends.

Erwin joined the duo a year later, in third grade, he was also tackled by Hanji on their first day. He was stupidly tall even at that age, Levi took some time to get used to being around him and feeling shorter than he was. They also were the only people that endured Levi’s temper.

So it was always just the three of them, for Levi at least. Hanji and Erwin had other friends, well at least Erwin did, Hanji was too damn loud for most people.

Doing his usual routine of dropping Mikasa and her friends at the entrance he then went to go park the car. Entering the school he always spotted Erwin the easiest, him being tall as hell and having one of the first lockers helped.

“Hi, Levi.” He was greeted by the tall man “Good morning.”

“Good morning my ass, its seven in the morning, nothing is good.” Levi shot back with a sigh. “Where’s shitty glasses anyway? She’s always early.”

“Missing me already, little Levi?” came Hanji’s voice from behind him.

He turned around, facing her “I was wondering if you had finally let go of my ass.” the boy then flickered her forehead “also stop fucking calling me little, I’m not that short.”

“You’ll always be little in my eyes.” Hanji proceeded to squish Levi’s cheeks, which only earned her another flick to the forehead. The three of them decided to then walk to class, Hanji with her slightly red forehead.

X

You could call Levi somewhat of a nerd, not that he spent his whole time studying, but he put in a considerable amount of effort into his grades. He started to actually study on freshman year, honestly his life was not looking great and he had no prospect of a future. 

The crucial turning point in his life, was when he realized he still had support from his family and from his friends despite his horrible behavior. Levi lost count of how many nights Hanji and Erwin stayed up with him, trying to teach him the subjects they were learning in school. He lost counts as to how many emotional meltdowns they endured with him, even though they were screamed and cussed at.

It honestly paid off in the end. Levi was in the top 2 in his class, behind Hanji of course, no one could top that girl’s grades. But his high GPA didn’t come without effort though, he still spent his fair share of sleepless nights when finals arrived. The thing that bothered him the most was when people were so surprised at his grades that they assumed he must cheat in all his classes, as if he didn’t make the effort that he did. With time he learned how to manage his time and not get drowned in school homework.

The raven haired boy didn’t mind the classes per se, he just wished it didn’t involve so many people and that it wasn’t so damn early in the morning. He liked sitting and class and learning, one of the best parts were correcting teachers that thought they’re the owners of truth. He couldn’t stand presumptuous assholes that assumed they were superior just because they were teachers although there were some exceptions. Ms. Rico was one of them, she was their physics teacher who recently got out of college, Levi supposed that why she was a little more down to earth.

The bell rang, indicating that the physics period had ended. He packed his belongings and made his way to the door were Erwin and Hanji were already waiting.

“Hey, Levi. Can I talk to you for a second?” He heard Ms. Rico calling. The boy looked over at his friends with a confused expression as to why he was being asked to stay, and they looked back even more confused.

He sat in one of the first desks in order to wait for the classroom to empty. When the last student got out and closed the door he asked with a concerned tone “Is something wrong?”

“Oh no, dear!” The teacher started laughing “You’re not in trouble! I just wanted to ask you a favor.”

He waited for her to finish speaking, getting more confused every second. Seeing that he wasn’t going to continue the conversation, she kept on speaking.

“So I was wondering if you could tutor for one of my students. He’s a junior and his grades are really flunking, especially in physics.” Ms. Rico asks without taking her eyes from some tests she was grading.

“Hm, yes sure. Why didn’t you ask Hanji though? She’s ranked first in the class.” he inquired. It’s not the minded tutoring for someone, but Hanji had better grades than he did and she was an amazing teacher.

“I thought about asking her, but I figured you’re closer to the student. He’s friends with your cousin Mikasa. You know Eren, right?” She looked up from the paper to look at him “I imagine you being close to him would help, he really needs the help.”

Well they weren’t exactly close to each other, but they weren’t strangers either. Levi always thought the boy had bad grades, but to the point where they had to ask for a tutor? That was really a last case scenario.

“Yeah, sure. I can help him”

“Great! Could you come back here after last period? I’ll talk to him and explain everything.”

After agreeing to what his teacher had asked him, he went outside only to find two very curious friends trying to listen through the door. After telling them everything, they were both surprised as well that Eren needed a tutor.

“Maybe I can help.” Chipped in Erwin.

“I can also help if you need” she exclaimed “We can form a study group, oh my god, Levi! It’ll be so cute us teaching him!!”

“Would you kindly calm the fuck down? The kid doesn’t even know that he’s going to get a tutor yet.” He exasperated in response.

When Hanji got excited about something, it was very hard to calm her down. Levi and Erwin had to sit and listen to her go on about tutoring Eren the whole day.

X

When the bell for last period rang, Hanji had already packed all her belongings and kept urging Levi and Erwin to move faster so they could go talk to Ms. Rico.

“You do know that she asked me and not you, right?” the raven haired male said while they walked to the physics classroom.

“You’re not going to ruin my fun, midget” she shot back with a smile.

Levi grumbled the rest of the way that he wasn’t a fucking midget, and it only made Hanji smile even more in victory.

When they arrived outside the classroom, Levi gave a brief knock on the light colored wood door. After hearing his teacher voice he opened the door only to find Eren sitting in the same chair he was seated early, looking down as if he was embarrassed.

“Hi, Levi! Thanks for dropping by, I already explained Eren the situation and he’s on board with it.” She said while looking in Levi’s direction.

“Oi, brat. Why you looking down?” he inquired looking at the younger male.

“Ah, nothing. Sorry about this whole situation” Eren replied, not taking his eyes from the ground.

“You got nothing to be sorry about, everyone gets bad grades.” Levi tried to cheer Eren up. “Is there anything else, Ms. Rico?” he asked, turning towards the teacher.

“No, that’s all! Hope you can help Eren.” She then turned to said boy “And Eren, please make the effort to lift your grades up. They’re really important.”

Levi nodded and waited for Eren to get up to open the door. He held the door for the brunet to go through, but maybe that wasn’t the best idea for the boy. As soon as he walked out of the door he was received with a very aggressive hug from Hanji, the poor boy was so confused.

“Hmm, Levi? Who’s this?” He asked in a concerned voice.

“God dammit, shitty glasses. Get the fuck off” he placed his backpack on the ground and had Erwin help him remove Hanji from Eren.

Erwin muttered and apology while he had his arms wrapped around a very excited Hanji, trying to contain her.

“I’m sorry, sometimes she acts more like an excited puppy then a human.” He replied running his left hand through his hair and picking up his backpack with the right. “This is Hanji and Erwin, they’re my friends apparently.”

“Hanji found out that I was asked to tutor for you and she was very excited, as you can see, to help” Levi continued after Hanji had calmed down from her over excited puppy form.

“Thank you? I guess?” He said while scratching his neck “I’m Eren, by the way”

“Oh honey, we know you!” Hanji pointed out excitedly.

“You're friends with Mikasa right? The kid who lives next door?” Erwin inquired.

“Yeah! That’s me. I think I might have seen you guys when I was over at Mikasa’s sometime” Eren didn’t have that much of a great memory, one of the reasons he didn’t bother studying.

The group chatted for a bit until Eren’s friends came to find him. Levi said his goodbye’s to his friends and went to drive the younger teens home.

Levi and Eren explained the situation to Mikasa and Armin. Armin thought it was great that Eren was finally getting some help, and it helped that it was from someone who had already graduated that grade. Mikasa wasn’t so keen on the idea of Levi having to do it. He knew that his cousin was over protective of her friends, but it wasn’t like he and Eren would end up dating or something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be keeping Levi's past a lil bit vague for now! I promise I’ll address it when the time comes!
> 
> Feel free to coment your thoughts here! I love to get feedback <3  
> Also make sure to keep safe during these hard times! Wash your hands and try to stay home, we got this <3
> 
> Find me in my tumblr [here](https://levi-sbooty.tumblr.com)!  
> 


	3. Not all sunny days are good days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative chapter title: Shit went wrong (again)  
> We finally get some Ereri interaction in the chapter! Hopefully that’s enough to fill your heart for what’s to come lol

\-----Eren’s pov-----

Finally, Saturday came around and Eren was exhausted. This week had been really rough on him, especially with his father’s visit. The bruise on his cheek and ribs were now a mix of faded yellow and green almost having disappeared completely, and he couldn’t be happier about that.

The day was looking quite nice, there were a few white clouds on the sky, allowing the day to be sunny but not burning hot. So the boy decided to go on a walk to the near park, it was a place that brought him a strange feeling of sadness and joy. Eren had a lot of good memories there, so it was hard to visit the place without getting sad about the turn his life took, but it was also a calm place where he could think clearly and be himself. He didn’t feel like telling Armin or Mikasa, Eren liked to be alone sometimes, so he just grabbed his phone and wallet and went out the door. The park wasn’t very far, maybe a seven minute walk.

He lived in a fairly nice neighborhood, it definitely wasn’t a rich one, but the streets were nice and safe. There were quite a few stores nearby the park, where it started to become more commercial. Eren stopped to pet some dogs that were out with their owners on the way to the park, which turned a seven minute walk into a fifteen minute walk.

Making a right on the next street Eren could spot the park, it was filled with people and food vendors. It was usually empty only on weekdays because people were busy with work, on weekends parents usually brought their kids for some outside fun.

Entering the park, he managed to hear the sound of children laughing and dogs barking. It made him happy seeing the park filed with life like this, it reminded the boy of his younger days. When he was small and his parents still had a good relationship, they used to bring him here every weekend to play around. He would eat popcorn and cotton candy while running after the ducks located around the lake, then run from the ducks after they figured out he had food on his hands.

Going deeper into the park, the crowd started to thin out and that was the peace and quiet Eren was hoping for. While passing some trees he spotted a bench that seemed empty, so he made a turn and went straight there.

As always Eren was very easily distracted, when he looked up he saw Levi leaning against a tree while smoking. Eren was in plain view so he made a quick turn back to where he came from, not wanting a have an awkward encounter with the other male.

“Oi, Eren!” He heard the person he was trying to avoid call him. The brunet froze in place and closed his eyes, maybe if he stood still Levi would let him lea- “Come here!” the other shouted again

Not having other choice, he turned around not looking up from the ground and made his way to the older male.

“Are you scared of me or something? Jeez, stop looking at the ground” Levi spoke with slight annoyance in his tone “I’m not going to bite you, you know?”

“Ha, yeah I know” he finally looked up from the ground. “I didn’t know you smoked.” Was the first thing that came out of his mouth and Eren mentally slapped himself in the face for it.

“I don’t.” He responded “I mean, I’m quitting. It’s not good for your health kid, don’t smoke.” He quickly added while going to the trash can to put out the cigarette and throw it away.

“Yeah, it’s not my thing.” Both males then just stood there in silence, looking around as if this wasn’t the most awkward silence ever.

He was frantically searching on his brain for something to fill the silence, he sat on the bench he had spotted earlier and turned to Levi.

“What are you doing here? I don’t think I’ve seen you in this part of the park.”

“I’m meeting Erwin and Hanji at Titan’s café. Just came out here for a smoke.” Levi gestured to the trashcan where he had just thrown his cigarette out “How about you?”

“Nothing much, I just-” He stopped mid-sentence when the older male sat next to him “I… Err, I just came out for a walk.” he quickly said the rest of his sentence mentally cussing himself for stuttering.

“Without Mika and mushroom head? You’re usually glued to the hip to those two.”

“Mushroom head? You mean Armin?” Eren asked suppressing a laugh.

“Well, yeah. His haircut kinda looks like a mushroom.” Levi replied while mimicking Armin’s hair in an exaggerated way.

Eren broke into a laugh, clutching his stomach. “Oh- oh my god, it does look like a mushroom! I never realized.”

Levi tried to hide, but Eren saw that he laughed a little bit. He didn’t mention it though, the boy felt like he was witnessing a rare event, it was his first time seeing Levi laugh.

The two of them chatted for a few minutes until Levi’s phone rang and he had to go meet his friends. Both of them seemed a bit displeased that their together time had ended, but they had to say goodbye at some point. The raven haired male didn’t forget to remember Eren about their first study session on Monday, with a promise to get a beating if he didn’t show up.

The brunet definitely felt lighter and happier after spending some time with Levi. It would be a good thing if they could get closer, Eren tried to convince himself that it was only for study purposes and nothing else.

X

The walk home was nice, there was a cool breeze blowing on Eren’s hair. Not like he could to keep it nice and tidy even if he wanted. The boy felt his phone vibrate on his back pocket, thinking it was a message either form Armin or Mikasa he quickly grabbed the device to check.

From unknown number: _Don’t tell Mikasa about me smoking, she doesn’t know_

This seemed like Levi, but Eren was pretty sure he never gave out his number to the older male. He promptly typed out a response.

To unknown number: _Levi? How’d you get my number?_

From unknown number: _I asked Mikasa for it, but I’m serious don’t tell her_

To Levi: _Yea, sure. Np_

Eren saved Levi’s number and pocketed his phone. He wasn’t expecting any more messages from the older male since he was with his friends, but if Levi went out of his way to get his number and message him, it probably was important for Levi that Mikasa remained unaware.

Deciding to not dwell on the messages he exchanged with Levi, the brunet made his way home. It was nearing dinner time so Eren started to feel a bit hungry, since he was in a good mood he settled in making dinner for once.

Arriving home, the boy went straight to the bathroom to wash in hands in order to commence making dinner. Looking through his kitchen cabinets he realized the house was running low on groceries, he took a mental note to go buy some soon. Deciding to make pasta he filled a pan with water and sat on the kitchen table playing on his phone, waiting for the water to boil.

A couple of minutes later he heard the front door opening and he immediately froze. Eren got up and slightly opened the kitchen door to check if it was his father, he heard footsteps and when the person came into view he saw that it was his mother. Letting go of a breath he didn’t realize he was holding was enough to grab his mother’s attention.

“Oh, hi Eren.” She said facing in Eren’s direction “Are you cooking something?”

“Ah, yeah. I’m making pasta.” It felt awkward to have an in person conversation with his mother and act like they practically haven’t seen each other the whole month. “Do you want some?”

“Thanks! I’m going to go take a shower, call me when its ready” She said while climbing the stairs.

It was the most bizarre conversation he ever had. Honestly it made Eren mad, seeing his mother act like nothing was wrong, as if she didn’t disappear days at a time. Still very confused about what happened he sent a message to the group chat.

To XOXO gossip girl: _Guys, my mom just came home and im like???_

He placed his phone down and turned his attention towards the boiling water, putting the pasta in. Eren smiled remembering the weekend they binge watched gossip girl and decided to rename the group chat, it was one of the best weekends of his life.

The boy grabbed his phone after making sure all of the pasta was submerged in water. There were a couple of messages from Armin and Mikasa being as confused as he was, they knew that she was pretty absent in Eren’s life.

From Armin: _Okay but like what did she say???_

From Armin: _we need more info, comeback_

From Mikasa: _@Eren hellooo_

To XOXO gossip girl: _She just said hi, and I think we might have dinner together?? Idk if this is good or not_

The group went on to exchange a few messages until the pasta was ready, Eren said that he would come back later with news. The boy set the table and the plates for them to eat together, after making sure everything was ready he went upstairs to call his mother.

X

They were eating dinner and having a pleasant conversation. Eren was over the moon to finally get his mother’s attention, so he carried the talk in a very light manner. After sometime they started to talk about Eren’s school life and how that was going.

“So how’s sophomore year going?” She asked taking a sip of water.

“Mom, I’m a junior. You were there for the parents reunion this year.” He corrected with a dry laugh.

“Wasn’t that last year? Well, I’m sure your grades are high anyway.” Not giving Eren the chance to answer she kept going. “Did you get into a fight? Is that a bruise on your face?”

The boy visibly froze “No. Dad came home earlier this week, he was very drunk… and angry.” He answered looking down.

He could sense that the moment he mentioned his dad was when his mother practically became a different person. She exhaled so much anger it was suffocating.

“Eren Jeager. You know how I feel about your father. Why do you always have to mention him?” Carla placed on the table the glass of water she was holding with such force that it almost broke. “Why can’t he have a nice dinner together? Why do you have to ruin everything?” His mother was practically screaming at this point.

“I’m sorry” Eren murmured, trying to make himself as small as possible.

“Huh, you’re sorry?” she said with tears in her eyes “I came home to make you a surprise, so we could spend a nice evening together and you do this to me?? I’m your mother Eren.”

Carla stormed out of the kitchen without another word, leaving Eren alone. Tears streamed out of his eyes, he felt like he couldn’t breathe. Why did he had to mention his father? The boy felt so stupid, he just needed to lie and keep the mood nice.

Eren just sat there crying for god knows how long, it reminded him of the day Grisha came home last time. Maybe he could’ve done things differently, why did he do everything wrong?? He just wanted to have a stable home, the boy wasn’t even asking to be perfect, or for his parents to be together. He just wanted to have piece and to be happy.

X

Sunday rolled around and Eren felt like shit. He didn’t feel like eating or getting out of bed. He’d sent a text to Armin and Mikasa saying that he was fine, because it was giving him a headache being asked about what happened all the time.

The first time he decided to do something productive was when he got up to eat a bowl of cereal, since his stomach decided to puke all the food he didn’t eat during the day. Eren was functioning in autopilot mode, pick up a bowl, put cereal in, milk, eat. He started crying while eating and he didn’t even know why.

After having done the dishes, Eren decided to go and take a shower. He did have to go to school the next day, maybe a shower would help on feeling a little better. 

After his mother left him alone in the kitchen yesterday, he really wanted to call his friends. The boy wanted to be hugged and to listen that everything was going to be okay, but he couldn’t. His friends had no idea what Grisha had done to Eren, so how would he explain being on the verge of a panic attack after a simple dinner with his mom?

Eren took a shower and went straight to bed, plugging his phone in the charger he hoped for a better day tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I might have a thing for ending chapters in angst, I’m so (not) sorry
> 
> Find me in my Tumblr [here!](https://levi-sbooty.tumblr.com).


	4. All around me are familiar faces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tags were updated!!
> 
> **Tw: panic attack**  
>  You can skip Eren’s pov and go straight to Levi’s! They talk about it but it’s not graphic like Eren’s. I've included a brief explanation of what happened in the final notes if anyone's interested!
> 
> Sorry for not posting on Wednesday! It was a little bit much for me, so I’ll probably just stick to Saturdays for now!
> 
> Also sorry for the shitty as title lol, i couldn't come up with anything better

\-----Eren pov-----

Ever since Eren had woken up, he felt like absolute shit. The boy had been awake since probably four a.m. he had a nightmare about something he couldn’t quite remember. The brunet woke up drenched in sweat, the sheets were sticking to his skin. Despite sweating the whole night Eren felt cold shivers running through his body, the boy quickly hopped on the shower in the hopes of erasing all traces of a bad night. After going back to the bedroom and changing the sheets, the boy went on to eat a piece of toast so that he could stomach a Tylenol to calm down the incessant pulsing headache he felt.

The ride to school wasn’t fun either, he could feel that his friend got more worried every time Eren answered a question halfheartedly. He felt numb, but at the same time he felt everything a hundred times more. The boy could appreciate the concern that came from his friends, but it only served to make him feel worse. 

Eren tried to pass his behavior off as it being a consequence of him not being able to sleep through the night, his friends didn’t buy the excuse this time though. They kept pestering him to find out what happened and Eren was starting to get angry at it, the boy didn’t want to talk about it, why was that so hard to understand?

Lunch time arrived and the group was sitting together with some people from the soccer team. Armin set right next to Eren and Mikasa in front of him, the two of them kept trying to get Eren to talk. They were used to Eren being down sometimes, but something just seemed off with the boy.

The cafeteria was filled with chatter and clattering noises from the dishes, and Eren just couldn’t stand anymore. “What the hell!! Can’t you just leave me alone?!” he suddenly screamed, ceasing all occurring noise.

The boy realized what he had just done, everyone at his table looked at him in shock and he started hearing the murmuring noises of people talking about him. Not knowing what to do, he got up and ran.

Passing the cafeteria doors, the boy could hear his friends calling for him, but he couldn’t stop. Eren had to run, he had to get away. His eyes started burning from the tears he refused to let go of, his heart pounced against his ribcage in a protest from the running, but he couldn’t stop.

Eren ran until he reached the bleachers on the soccer field, where his legs managed to get him. He tried to breathe but no air was coming into his lungs, he tried to calm down but he could still feel his rapid pulse banging against his skin. The sky felt it was crashing down, the boy had never felt like this before. The best way Eren could describe it, was that it felt like death.

\-----Levi’s Pov-----

The cafeteria was so damn loud, he never understood why they weren’t allowed to take their lunches to a quitter place to eat. Today’s menu was pizza and fries, what a great fucking lunch. Levi could swear he never saw anything other than frozen food being served here in all of his years as a student.

He was sitting in a table with Erwin and Hanji, some other people were there but didn’t even knew who they were, so the raven kept his attention focused on his friends. They were talking about a group assignment the three had to do for literature class, they had to choose a famous author and do an essay about him.

Suddenly a scream made its way through the cafeteria. Trying to find the source of said scream, Levi saw Eren standing up and breathing hard. What the hell had happened?

Everyone stopped talking and looked towards Eren, after a couple of moments gossip started to fill the room. The younger boy could definitely hear it, he started looking around, as if he just became aware of the fact that he just screamed in the middle of the cafeteria. Eren ran out of the cafeteria, Mikasa and Armin tried calling for him to avail.

“What the hell was that?” Levi asked to his friends.

“I don’t know. Isn’t his friends with everyone in that table?” Erwin inquired.

“Maybe they had a fight?” Offered Hanji.

Levi contemplated going to ask Mikasa what happened, but he didn’t know if it was invasive. The thing worrying Levi was that Eren didn’t look so good, and he was probably alone now. It seemed like the younger male was having a panic attack, and wasn’t such a good thing to be alone during one.

It probably didn’t look so concerning for other people, but Levi had been in Eren’s situation before so he knew what it felt like. Deciding to go and talk with them he got up and made his way to their table. Getting closer he could see his cousin looking ready to cry, and Mikasa never cries.

“I don’t know. We were trying to figure out why he seemed so off today.” Armin explained getting up to sit next to Mikasa, putting a hand around her shoulders.

“Hey, what you crying for? He’s probably just stressed.” Levi tried to comfort Mikasa. “I’ll go talk to him, okay? I’m sure he’s fine.” 

He patted Mikasa’s head as if he was her big brother and made his way to the cafeteria doors. Armin stopped Levi and gave him a bottle of water, the older male thanked nodding his head and went to search for Eren.

The thing was, Levi had no idea where to look. He took a moment to think about where Eren could’ve ran to, maybe a bathroom? Levi checked each stall, and all were empty. The younger boy couldn’t have run to any classes, all teachers looked their rooms at lunch time.

Maybe Eren ran to a place he knew would be empty? There was probably no one at the soccer field on this time of the day, Levi thought. He quickly made his way there, hoping to be right. Seeing that the hallways were empty, Levi started running to get there as fast as possible.

Passing through the doors that led to the field Levi could see Eren laying down on the bleachers. As he got closer, trying not to startle the boy, Levi could see that Eren was _shaking_. It looked like he was both hot and cold at the same time, his face stained with tears.

The younger boy had an arm draped over his eyes, so he most likely didn’t know Levi was there.

“Hey, brat.” Levi said softly.

Eren made a startled sound and almost feel of from where he was laying down. Levi took a step back and raised his hands to show that he wasn’t there to harm the brunet.

The moment Eren’s eyes finally focused on Levi he started shaking again, and tears pooled on his eyes. The younger boy tried desperately to wipe away his tears, as if the raven couldn’t see already that he was crying.

Levi immediately sat by his side and wrapped his arms around the crying boy. Eren held onto Levi like his life depended on it, crying even harder. The older male could feel wet patches from Eren’s tears forming on his shirt, but he couldn’t care less, Eren wasn’t pushing him away and that’s all that matters.

They stayed there for some time, Levi kept caressing Eren’s brown locks trying to calm the boy down. They had definitely missed at least one period by this point, but Eren had fallen asleep against Levi shoulder and he didn’t want to wake the poor boy up. Taking his left hand from the boy’s hair he reached for his phone. There were a lot of messages from his friends and from Armin and Mikasa as well, by the time he replied to all of them stating that he was with Eren and that he was safe, the younger male had awakened from his sleep.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Was the first thing Eren said to Levi.

“Hey, it’s okay.” He reassured the younger male. “What happened there, Eren?”

“Fuck.” The boy ran both his hands across his face. “Was it that bad?”

“Well, yeah. You were pretty loud back there, I got here and you were shaking so much.” Levi opened the water bottle and handed it to Eren, the boy downed half of it in one go. “Does this have to do with that bruise on your face?”

“No.” Eren answered way too quickly for Levi to believe him. “I’m fine, really. Just got a bit stressed with the noise.” The brunet tried to stand up, but Levi grabbed his wrist and didn’t let go.

“You don’t have to talk about it now, but please Eren. Whatever is happening to you, tell someone. You can talk to me if you want, sometimes it helps not talking to a very close friend.” Levi looked Eren in the eye, only know realizing how beautiful his eyes were.

“Okay.” Eren said, looking back into those gray eyes. Levi felt the strongest urge to keep that boy close, to protect him from everything in the world.

“M-Maybe we should go.” Levi only realized that he was still holding Eren’s wrist. “It’s no use for us to go back to class at this point, maybe we can go to my house and watch a movie, I’ll come pick up Mikasa and Armin later.”

“I mean, only if you want to. I think it would do you some good to distract yourself.” _What the hell was_ that Levi thought, he really just invited Eren to watch a movie at his house? The kid just had a panic attack, it wasn’t the time for that.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.” Eren smiled. They decided to only tell Armin and Mikasa after getting home, so that the girl wouldn’t freak out and try to stop them.

X

\-----Eren’s pov-----

Eren was alone with Levi in his house, no big deal. The older male was only helping him, it wasn’t the time to gay panic, this was only an act of friendly kindness.

Levi had texted everyone, letting them know where they were and that they were okay. This reminded Eren of that day on the park, were the two of them were alone and they had a nice talk. Hopefully the day wouldn’t be too awkward until the others arrived.

“Okay, the popcorn is in the microwave. If we don’t eat it now Mikasa will do it for both of us.” Levis said while sitting down on the opposite side of the couch. “What kind of movie do you like?”

“Hum, anything really. I just can’t watch stuff with spirits, that freaks me out way too much.”

“No spirits, gotcha.” Levi replied going through the movies in Netflix. “Okay there’s this one called ‘Get Out’, I haven’t seen it yet. Have you?”

“Nop, I’ve heard people talking about it. It seems pretty cool, I think it’s horror-ish.” Eren replied trying to remember the criticism he saw about the movie.

“Yeah, you cool with horror? I don’t think it has spirits.”

“Yep, you?” Eren asked Levi, although the older male didn’t seem like the type of person to get scared easily.

“You think I can’t handle some jump scares, brat?” Levi questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Never said I did. Why do you keep calling me brat? I’m only a year younger, you know?” The brunet shot back, trying to fake being offended.

Levi only replied with a snicker and then the microwave beeped, telling us that the popcorn was ready. The raven disappeared into the kitchen and came back with two bowls of popcorn that almost made Eren drool, giving Eren his share of the popcorn Levi started the movie.

X

It turns out that, no, Levi couldn’t handle jump scares. Every time something like that happened on the movie, the older male would either jump or let a scream out, both followed by a hand clutching his heart and a long repertoire of every curse word known to this day.

Eren of course tried to keep his reactions in check, but it was so funny seeing the other get scared so easily.

“Don’t you say a fucking word about that.” Was the first thing Levi said after the movie.

“I would never” Eren answered with a laugh. “So what did-”

Eren was interrupted by Levi’s ring tone, Mikasa was calling to let him know that classes were over and that Levi could go pick them up. The older male asked if Eren wanted to come along, but the brunet decided to go home and take a shower before coming back here for another movie with everyone.

X

The rest of the night went smoothly, Eren apologized to Armin and Mikasa, he knew they were only trying to help. They apologized as well for pushing Eren too much.

The four of them decided to watch a comedy, it would help to keep the mood light, and Eren needed to have a little bit of fun. Levi said that he would cook dinner if the three of them did the dishes, they all agreed, no one could cook like Levi.

“What are you going to cook?” Mikasa asked her cousin.

“I’m thinking about Lasagna, I think we have all the ingredients.”

“Ohh! Are you going to make the le-”

“Shhh, don’t say it. He’s a little shit and won’t eat it if he knows what’s inside.” Levi said while pointing to Eren.

“Hey! I’m not a little shit.” Eren said sounding very offended.

“Yes, you are.” All three of them said in unison, the boy pouted like a child in response.

With a laugh the raven went in the kitchen to make them dinner. The three of them chatted about what Eren missed in school today, which wasn’t much, just a couple of easy assignments. All three of them turned their heads to the front door on the sound of keys outside.

“Oh, hey.” It was Kenny, Levi and Mikasa’s cousin. “I only see one of my kids, where’s the other one?” He asked in a playful tone.

“Levi is cooking us dinner.” Mikasa answered.

“That’s nice. Eren, Armin, I haven’t seen you guys in a while.” He added, putting his suitcase and car keys down. “Everything okay?”

“Yes, sir.” They both answered.

“Oh, come on. No sir, how many times do I have to tell you guys to call me Kenny?” Both of them smiled and nodded.

“I’m fucking filthy, I’ll go take a shower. Tell Levi I’m home, god knows he doesn’t like to be interrupted when cooking.” Kenny said while going up the stairs.

“Will do.” Mikasa answered in a half scream so that Kenny could hear.

X

After a long ass time Levi called them to eat, the food looked fucking delicious. They called Kenny to eat as well, soon the five of them were seated at the dinner table cutting the lasagna.

“Eww, it’s green. I’m not eating that.” Eren said with a disgusted face.

“Don’t talk shit about my food, you little shit. You’re going to love it.” Levi said pointing the knife at him.

Eren held his hands up in defeat. “Fine, but I doubt I’ll like it.”

The raven haired male continued the process of cutting the food and putting it in everyone’s plates while mimicking Eren’s ‘I’ll doubt I’ll like it’ in a mocking tone.

The brunet hesitantly took a piece of the Lasagna to his mouth, and he was immediately hit with an explosion of flavors. Moaning around his fork the boy admitted defeat.

“That good, huh?” Levi said with a smirk.

Eren’s cheeks flushed with color as soon as he realized the sound he’d make, the boy only nodded, trying to not embarrass himself ant further. Of course everyone laughed at their little exchange.

“I told you, no one talks shit about my food. And definitely not about my leek and ricotta lasagna.” The raven haired boy stated proudly.

The rest of the night went smoothly, the three of them did the dishes while Levi went upstairs to take a shower. The older boy didn’t come down after that and Eren and Armin ended up going home to prepare for the next school day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To everyone that skipped the panic attack scene:  
> What happens in the first Eren POV is that he gets overwhelmed by everything, Mikasa and Armin were worried and kept asking him why he was so down. So he kinda just snapped, he was crying and ran to the bleachers and Levi found him.
> 
> This chapter was a little bit longer! hope everyone is fine with that.  
> As always comments are always appreciated! <3
> 
> Find me in my Tumblr [here!](https://levi-sbooty.tumblr.com).
> 
> We've hit exactly 10k words now, thats odly satisfaying lol Thank you for your support!


	5. Don't let your fears get the best out of you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Here I am 3 months later lol, sorry for all the wait! I’ll talk more about it at the final notes to not clog up this space!
> 
> Hope you like the chapter <3
> 
> TW homophobic language: there’s a dialogue that contains very minimal homophobic content. It made me a little meh when writing it, but I promise its very mild. I won’t put a tag for it for now.

\-----Eren’s pov-----

“Listen here, we gotta start these tutoring lessons today. If you don’t get your grades up, my ass is on the line.” Was the first thing Levi said to Eren when he got on the car the next morning.

Eren knew that Levi had let him go yesterday, he wouldn’t be able to study either way. But his next exam was approaching and the goal was to not completely fail it.

“Okayyy, I get it mom.” Eren dismissed rolling his eyes.

“I’m going to come here and pick you up after your soccer practice, you little shit.” Levi said pointing a finger to the rear mirror, aiming it at the brunet. “We’re starting this shit even if you don’t want it.” His tone left no room for argument.

Arriving at the school Levi did his usual routine of dropping the kids at the entrance and then going to go park. Eren made his way inside the school with his friends, hoping that no one would ask him what happened yesterday, but of course the universe didn’t like him that much.

“Hey, Eren” It was Reiner the team’s co-captain. “Are you okay? You scared us yesterday.”

“Uh- Yeah, sorry about that. I’m cool now, dude.” Dude? Okay, the boy wasn’t the best with words, especially when he was nervous.

“Oh, okay. If you need to talk or something like that you have my number right?” You could see from far away that Reiner was just as awkward as Eren, but the boy was trying at least. Was Reiner just being kind or was he saying that Eren could like _call_ him? While Eren day dreamed about late calls with the hot co-captain, the pair made their way to the brunet’s locker to get his books for his first class.

“Yeah, thanks for that. I appreciate it.” The brunet punctuated his sentence with a shy smile. “Oh right! I totally forgot, can you fill me in on yesterday’s practice? Sorry I missed it.”

“Sure, no problem. If you’re not up to going today just let me know though.” Reiner said as Eren closed his locker, books in hand. “We have history together first period, right? Let’s walk and talk!” The tall blond said while placing a gentle hand in Eren’s back to guide him forward. The sudden blush on Eren face did not go unnoticed.  
X

Eren’s day wasn’t the worst but it definitely wasn’t the best either.

All of his classes went smoothly, he got a text from Levi reminding him to not run away after practice because they really needed to study. With a couple of escape threats made from the brunet, the other reminded him that he knew where Eren lived and that he was not afraid to use brute force to drag him to study. That made him laugh, quickly earning a ‘shhhh’ from the teacher, not wanting to get in trouble he put his phone away.

Lunch was a little bit awkward, with yesterday’s events. Eren was on edge every time someone addressed him, scared that they would bring his “incident”. He was trying to keep the mood light, but the boy felt the same panic as yesterday building up inside of him. When Connie asked him about what happened yesterday, he was ready to run again.

Moments before he snapped, Reiner reached across the table and tapped his arm. “Dude, do you remember when that asshole from Maria high tried to jump you on a game?” He said with a laugh. “I don’t think Sasha’s heard this story. You tell it the best, it was legendary.” It took Eren some time to realized that he was saved and to get used to the sudden change in subject, but he smiled and mouthed a thank you to Reiner. Telling Sasha the story was enough to get the attention off of himself and into funny stories from everyone.

Eventually the group fell into a nice chat and everyone managed to eat peacefully. One thing that did not go unnoticed by Eren was Reiner stealing a few glances in his direction during the rest of the lunch break, no one else seemed to realize it so the boy kept that information to himself. 

Finally, practice rolled around and Eren was quick to say his goodbye’s to his friends. Getting to the locker area he made a quick move to change his clothes and put his backpack on the locker designated for him. Eren was making his way out of the locker room when he bumped into Reiner.

“Oh, Hey!” Eren greeted the co-captain.

“Hi, Eren. Fancy meeting you here.” Reiner said with a laugh while going inside the locker room motioning for Eren to follow him. “Do you have anything in mind for today’s warmups?”

He followed the other back into the locker room. Eren sat in one of the benches alongside a wall that divided the room in two. On his side of the room were the showers and the other side was where the team usually changed their clothes. Reiner disappeared on the other side and Eren imagined he would come out fully clothed, but oh boy was he wrong.

“Maybe we could do something different and do a couple of dynamic warmu-” Eren stopped mid-sentence when Reiner decided to walk out without a shirt on. “W-warmups, that was what I meant to say.”

He could see Reiner snickering. It’s not like he hadn’t seen the blond without a shirt, he had probably already seen the whole team without one, but never alone like this.

“That’s a good idea,” Reiner sat next to Eren and they both could hear Eren gulping. “We haven’t done those in a while.” The brunet could only hope Reiner would not make a comment about how red he suddenly had become.

“Uhh- I’m gonna go stretch, so you can come out when you’re ready.” Eren tried to play it cool, he really did, but the boy managed to trip on nothing while going to the door. At least he didn’t fall face first on the floor. “I’m okay, yeah. See you on the field.”

_So much for being on the closet_ , Eren thought while running to the field, he really had to get his shit together or someone would suspect that he wasn’t straight. The boy occupied himself with stretching and running around on the grass, he tried to keep his distance from Reiner until the team finished getting there.

Luckily for Eren there were no more gay panic incidents during practice. As much as he didn’t mind sitting with Reiner in the locker room, he started to panic a little as he thought about what would happen to him if his parents found out he was gay, which caused him to make a few mistakes during the practice game.

“Oi, Eren! Get your head in the game.” He heard Pixis shouting as he missed another goal. “Okay, let’s take ten. Eren get that stick out of your ass.” 

He laid on the grass, drenched in sweat. Not even a minute later his view of the clouds was interrupted by Reiner holding two water bottles, he handed one to Eren while sitting down.

“Thanks, it’s really fucking hot today.” 

“Yeah. Hey don’t mind Pixis, take it easy today.” The blond said after chugging half of his water bottle. “Uh, your friends are there. Don’t know if you saw.” He added flicking his head to his left.

Eren looked to where he was indicated and saw Mikasa, Armin and surprisingly, Levi. Not in a million years he would think that the other would sit and watch his soccer practice. Armin waved at him and he gave a tired wave back, plopping back on the grass he heard Reiner talking to him.

“Huh? Sorry, what did you say?”

“Is the mean looking one your boyfriend?”

“What?” Eren replied a little too loudly for it to not be considered suspicious. “No, dude. I’m not gay.” He was on full panic mode.

Raising an eyebrow, Reiner asked. “Okay, _dude_. Sure.”

“I’m not! Drop it.” Eren replied back with a little bit more venom than necessary. “I’m not a fagg-”

“Do not fucking finish that sentence. There’s no need to go all homophobe on me.” Reiner quickly said full of anger.

“I’m- No, I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant. I used to get bullied for that when I was a kid.” He said the first lie that came to his mind. “I guess getting defensive stuck with me, I’m really sorry.” 

“Just don’t do that again. If you pick on anyone for being gay, I’ll kick your ass.” Reiner said with a very serious voice tone. “I’m your friend, I really like you but I don’t care if your story’s true or if you’re hiding something.” Eren made a move to interrupt him. “Shut the fuck up, listen to me. I don’t care if you’re hiding something and projecting, I’ll beat the hell out of you for being an asshole. Got it?”

“Y-yeah.” Eren agreed with a nervous gulp.

“I never want to hear that word coming from you as an insult ever again, I’m serious.” The blond muttered a little less angry, he knew something was up. Eren had never acted like that before. “Eren, it’s okay if you are gay. I’m not saying that that’s true, but it’s okay if you are. If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

Eren said a barely audible ‘okay’. Looking at the ground he added. “Please don’t tell anyone we talked about this, I’m not gay.”

“Okay, pretty boy, I believe you.” He said with a smile. “Can we hug this out? Let’s just say we argued over the game.”

“Sure. Thank you so much.” The fact that Reiner heard Eren sniffing over his shoulder was not brought up.

They stayed there a little bit until both males were calmer. Eren got up to chat a little bit with his friends before the break was over but practice was almost ending anyway so it didn’t really matter that much. They talked for a bit, Eren explained that he argued with Reiner over the game when Mikasa asked, other than that the group didn’t have a lot of time to talk before Pixis declared that the break was over. He told his friends that practice would end in no time and made his way back to the field.

x

Almost 10 minutes and a bunch of sweaty teens later, Eren went to the locker room to get his things and to say bye to the team.

“Why the fuck are you still gross? Don’t they have running water on that shit?” Levi said even before they started walking towards the car.

“I prefer to shower at home.” Eren said brushing it off.

“Jesus, what the fuck is up with you sweaty teenagers.” The raven said turning to the car. “The windows stay open, I’m not gonna have my car smell like shit.”

“But you’re still a teen too! You’re only a year older than me.” Eren sounded like a child, which didn’t really help his case on convincing Levi that they were on the same level.

Armin and Mikasa followed behind laughing at the conversation. They all made their way to the car and Eren was forced to sit at the backseat as far as he could from Levi, because he was still a sweaty teenager after all. The group chatted amicably during the ride home with the occasional complaint from Eren that he was being treated like a child, to which Levi would tell him to stop acting like one and the brunet would cross his arms and pout angrily at the window.

As soon as they got to Levi’s house the group parted, Eren went home to shower and get ready to study at Levi’s, Armin said he had to help his grandfather do something on the computer so he wouldn’t be able to study with them tonight and Levi and Mikasa went into their house.

Eren opened his front door hoping that no one was home so he could just spend the rest of his day peacefully. After checking the rooms that either of his parents could be and finding out that he was indeed alone, the boy went upstairs to take a shower and get his books ready to study.

\-----Levi’s Pov-----

Eren wasn’t a bad player after all, Levi assumed he’d be an uncoordinated mess with his shitty long ass limbs. It wasn’t his initial plan to sit and watch the soccer practice, he was going to either go home and come back or just hang around on his car but curiosity got the best of him. The brat seemed a little distracted but he was definitely one of, if not the best on the team, it was nice seeing him so _himself_.

Levi knew that Eren wasn’t completely immature, just a little bit, but it was fun getting a rise out of the other male. It was just too easy to make him blush or pout, but _sure_ that was not the reason he liked to mess with Eren, it was just Levi being his asshole self.

After getting home he quickly showered so that he could get the living room ready for their tutoring lesson. It wasn’t as clean as he would like, but nothing that upset him too much. The raven haired boy cleared the coffee table so that they could put some cushions on the floor and be more comfortable than on the dinner table. He wasn’t the best teacher on the world but he was smart and they could at least try to make something out of it, if anything went wrong he could just talk to Ms. Rico and change Eren’s tutor.

Not long after Levi decided to sit down and start doing his own homework the doorbell rang and he went to open the door to a freshly showered Eren.

“Ready to stop pouting and get some knowledge into that brain of yours?” He said with a smirk.

“I don’t pout! Shut up.” Eren said sticking his tongue out to Levi as he made his way inside.

“Yeah, sure. Let’s get this study session going.” Levi said going to the table and mentioning for Eren to sit on the floor with him. “Grab your psychics homework, try to do it alone, if you get stuck on something I’ll help you.”

With that they started working on their homework, Eren would mostly ask for Levi’s help with all the numbers and shit. It’s not like the brunet was a total idiot, he just didn’t pay attention to commas or certain math problems and that would result in the whole answer being wrong but at least it was a small mistake. So they got on an agreement, Eren would go through the question twice and try to find the error before asking Levi, if that didn’t work the older male would step him and explain what was wrong. Almost an hour in and Eren’s mistakes were starting to minimize but he still hadn’t gotten a question right by himself.

“Yeah, this is definitely wrong. I’m gonna be stupid forever.” Eren muttered face first on the table after shoving his notebook on Levi’s direction.

“Oi, Brat. Did you look at the answer?”

“Huh- No, I just told you that’s wrong.”

“Well, it’s not.” Levi said trying to contain his smile, and with that, in an instant Eren was sitting right next to the raven. “Congratulations, Eren. You got your first answer right.”

“Oh my god.” Eren looked at the notebook in disbelief. “Are you sure?”

“Positive, and that was a hard one too.” The amusement in Levi’s voice clear. 

“Hell yeah. I’m a genius, maybe I should tutor you.” The brunet said that clearly as a joke, but now he was sitting _very_ close to Levi. When Eren realized they were that close he turned red and put some distance between them.

“Yeah, you wish.” Was Levi’s response. The mood was very light through the rest of the night and the pair studied for a couple more hours. They did take a few brakes to eat and relax and both of them kept sitting close, not as close as in that moment, but closer than they were before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo, about me going mia. Quarantine is beating my ass, I was in a bad place these last few weeks but yesterday I finally managed to get out of bed and be functional again. And I was finally motivated enough to write! I don’t think there’s any plot holes, a bit of the chapter was already written from when I started the fic so it wasn’t too hard to pick up where I left of.
> 
> I’m not going to make any promises on a regular updating schedule, but I promise to try my best! Hopefully you can stick with me through this story <3 Feel free to coment your thoughts here! I love to get feedback
> 
> Find me in my Tumblr [here!](https://levi-sbooty.tumblr.com).


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